Project Planning: Keeping the team on track

  Being in any form of computer related field, at the start it seems all rainbows and sunshine, we get scheduled to poke a computer with a metaphorical stick until it springs back to life, or does something it was supposed to do all along.  Acting as an underling we do as we are told and never think anything other than what we need to, re-routing an ip range, or creating a new system image for a certain vlan, all just standard acts we... just do I guess.  After a point though, the fun part we signed up for initially does not remain the central goal and outcome, instead a portion of our day becomes managing our underlings, after we took our lightning stone and became the IT equivalent of Jolteon, we are no longer the underlings, we are in charge.  After years of being the poker and phone call taker, we become the shot caller, and the planner.

  Becoming a leader:  Separating Emotions

  The first, and most important step to becoming a project manager, or project planner, is to become a leader.  Although it sounds a bit cut and dry, becoming a leader is not exactly a role that just anyone can assume.  Being a leader involves putting emotions aside more often than you would like to admit.  Despite the fact we respect those we employee, their short comings, and behaviors can undermine entire projects, and cost countless amounts of money.  Being a friend, and being a boss, are hard roles to balance, but in order to be a leader, the second you pass through those doors on a daily basis, friends are now employees, and when you leave employees can become friends.

  Maybe those roles can't be balanced, it may just be a case of becoming only a boss and distancing yourself from the employees and form no emotional attachment to any one individual.  At some point there will be at LEAST one employee who is either untamable, or untrainable to the point of way to many catastrophic melt downs at a huge project level, and allowing them to stay gainfully employed can function as a plague across the employees.  Once you lose control of one employee for to long, you will lose control of all of the employees, so you'll have to cut them loose before it spreads.  This is why it is hard to separate yourself from the employee employer relationship, this is why emotional attachments to employees can be detrimental.

  Emotions Separated:  Focusing on Strengths

  Every employee has a particular set of skills, skills they have acquired over a very long career.  Skills that range from experts in subnetting and cable runs, database management, to Linux administration.  Posting tickets on a wall and hoping they'll find the one that fits their skills is really a dream, you will have to orchestrate a plan that centers around each and every person individually, sometimes their greatest asset may not be the on they are most fond of, but it must be utilized to complete a project within an acceptable deadline.  Maybe you just may help them figure out a career path, something they may have overlooked for far to long.




  
  Eventually everyone will come to realize that IT is more than just a computer repair service, maybe all along you had a deep seeded desire to become a programmer, each of the skills has to become utilized though, to keep the team headed to victory.  We, as the project management team, have to find a way to write up a fully functional plan that takes advantage of every individuals assets and abilities.

  Writing up a plan

  Planning is possibly the easiest, yet hardest thing to do in terms of anything management oriented.  Figuring out someones strengths and weaknesses?  Simple, absolutely nothing hard about that.  Getting rid of troublesome employees?  Its hard, but its something that can be done without any really skill.  Planning?  Extremely confusing and complicated from a non-planning perspective.  From a non-planning perspective, a task is a task, nothing more, nothing less.  From a planning perceptive though, they are fragments of a much larger puzzle, a puzzle that doesn't exist to those who aren't looking for it.

  This is where it gets tricky, figuring out how long each person has to work, and how to segment a big project into smaller bite sized chunks.  After long enough though, this task does become easier, you will ascertain the ability to separate substantial plans into much more manageable pieces.  Looking at a single fourty hour project, and cutting it up into ten four hour projects, makes more sense, and if you put ten people on it, the project will be completed in half a day.  Each person playing to their strengths.  The best programmer write his program, the best database administrator perfecting a database, and the best security admin testing for flaws.

  Play to your strengths

  Everyone has a role, being a good co-worker and boss is not an easy to balance.  Being a great programmer may be your peak, or being a great security consultant may be what you are good at.  Not everyone is cut out to become management, not everyone is capable of being a planner, or planning substantial projects.  Forcing yourself to be a manager and planner without the ability, could create excess workplace stress, that may just end up crippling and destroying your hopes of having a fulfilling career.  It may not be your destiny or forte to become management, but do not be discouraged by that.  Maybe you are a piece of the puzzle, and you can become a irreplacable asset to the much larger team.

  Summary

  Learning how to plan a project involves being able to visualize a much larger puzzle chopped up into tiny bits, the ability to lead a full team to victory by separating friends from employees while in the work place.  Being a project manager and project planner is not an easy gig, and not something that just anyone can do, there is a level of mental fortitude and small bit of personal mastication to become a great manager and project champion.

  If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, let us know in the comment section below, and as always, be safe my fellow goblins.

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